«
PRESS CONFERENCE
We are calling this conference today, to inform you
about the progress of our liberation struggle - more concretely," to announce to you the opening, by FRELIMO, of yet
another front of armed struggle in Mozambique, this time in
the Province of TETEc.
THE IMPORTANCE OF TETE IN THE GENERAL CONTEXT
OF OUR STRUGGLEe
The Province of TETE has an area of 62,608 square miles
and a population of about 500,000 inhabitantsc It is one of
the richest provinces of Mozambique, mainly in minerals, the
major part of which are still to be explored» There is an
abundance of cattle, and agriculture is also well developed.
It is also in the Province of TETE that the Portuguese intend to realise a big project, profitable for agriculture,
linked with the construction of the biggest hydro-electric
dam in the whole of Africa, in the CABORA BASSA region. To
that effect, the Portuguese intend to encourage the immigration of Europeans to Mozambique: Their plan is to create
conditions in the ZAMBEZE valley for the allocation of 1
million Portuguese settlers« The explanation of that plan
is found in the progress of our liberation struggle. In
fact, the Portuguese have created 2 defence lines to check
the advance of our forces■ The first defence zone coincides
with, the NACALA-MANDIMBA line. But out forces broke that
line, and are already operating in MECANHELAS(in the extreme
South of Niassa). The second defence zone foreseen by Portu-
gsl in case of the rupture of the first one, is situated in
the ZAMBEZE River. For that, the Portuguese intend to allocate 1 million settlers along the length of this river, who
v/ould act as a barrier to the advance of our forces.
This project includes the construction of a hydro-electric dam, as we already stated, in CABORA BASSA, about 200
kms.(125 miles) North-West of the city of TETE. This dam
is supposed to cost about 350 million dollars, with a capacity of 17 thousand millions KW/H, and will furnish electric
power for Mozambique, South Africa, Rhodesia, and MALAWIr
The principal interested party in this project is South
Africa, which has already declared that nwith the cooperation
of the Republic, Zambesi power could be provided cheaper to
the other members of -the Southern African complex of nations •
In this way, the developing countries could be able to enjoy
the economies of large-scale production and attract international capital investment."( Dr. Van Eck, Chairman of the
Industrial Corporatior of South Africa"). South Africa also
intends to link the grid to her planned nuclear power stations,
expected to be built on the South African Coast daring the
1970fs.
South Africa1s interest in this project is so great that
she sent South African troops to TETE, to defend the site of
the dam, FRELIMO Intelligence has reported the presence of
1 battalion of South African troops in CHIOCOand several
companies in CHICOA, MAGUE and ZUMBO.
The project financiers shall be thr Western European economic interests and of the United States of America:
A) A FRANCO-AMERICAN CONSORTIUM-
MORRISON-KNUESEN, COMPADEC(FRANCE),
GENERAL ELECTRIC, BROWN-BOVERI, COMPAGNIE DES FORGES DE LA
LOIRE, COMPAGNIE ELECTRO-MECANIQUE DE FRANCE.
B) A FRANCO-ITALIAN CONSORTIUM-
GRUPPO  INDUSTRIE ELETTRO-MECANICHE PER  IMPIANTI A L'ESTERO
(ITALIE)   and  CREUSOT-JmMOKT,   SCHNEIDER (Fran ce) . . . . ./